Assad accuses UK of ‘bullying’ Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused the British government of bullying and naivety in its approach to the conflict in his country.

In an interview with the United Kingdom’s Sunday Times newspaper, he said Britain was determined to militarise the situation.

BBC says he repeated his conditional offer of talks with the opposition and dismissed suggestions that he might step down.

The UK says it supports the Syrian opposition but does not provide rebels with arms.

However, at a recent Friends of Syria meeting in Rome, Foreign Secretary William Hague said military aid was possible in the future.

Mr. Assad, in a rare interview with a Western newspaper, accused UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s “naive, confused, unrealistic” government of trying to end an European Union arms embargo so that the rebels could be supplied with weapons.

“We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter,” he said.

“To be frank, Britain has played a famously unconstructive role in our region on different issues for decades, some say for centuries.

“The problem with this government is that their shallow and immature rhetoric only highlights this tradition of bullying and hegemony.”

He added: “How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role when it is determined to militarise the problem?

“How can you ask them to play a role in making the situation better, more stable? How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supply to the terrorists and don’t try to ease the dialogue between the Syrian(s).”

About 70,000 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising that started almost two years ago. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighbouring countries.